Book Club Blog Day 1 You will blog after each book club meeting to extend your book

club beyond the borders of the classroom. A blog is an online journal that allows you to share your ideas with each other so that you will be able to make connections between the books read in class. It is public, so please remember to practice good digital citizenship. Any behaviour or talk that is inappropriate for class is also inappropriate for our blogs. Todays instructions: 1) Go to the following website: www.blogger.com 2) If you already have a Google account, you can log in and get started. If you dont have a Google account, click Get Started. Follow the instructions to set up your blog. Tips: You can decide what youd like the title should be but it should give your reader some sense of what your blog is about. Remember this is public so when you set up your profile, use a first name and last initial only for your display name and make sure you have show my email unchecked. Under Settings turn on comment moderation. That way you will get an email when someone comments on your blog and you can choose whether or not to publish it. If you ever get a comment from someone that makes you uncomfortable, come and see me. 3) Write your first blog post! Aim for about 200 words. Try writing about your first impressions of the book. What do you like about it? What dont you like? What predictions can you make about how the story will unfold? 4) Once your post is finished, tag it to help your classmates find out what your topic is about. Tags are key words that help users locate information. Tags are also known as labels on Blogger. 5) Start following the other bloggers in our class by going to your Dashboard. Then scroll down to Blogs Im Following and click Add. You can ask your classmates what their URLs are for their blog, or wait for your teacher to compile a class list.

Book Club Blog Day 2

By now you should have your blog set up and should have started to follow the other bloggers in class. Today youre going to jazz up your blog post and comment on at least two other posts. If youre not sure how to do any of these things, ask a classmate for help or check the Help button at the top right corner of your screen. 1) Jazz up your blog post! Add a picture or video that reminds you of the novel. Make sure you cite the source for the image or video. You can do this by Typing the word source highlight the wordclick the link icon paste in the URL for the source of your image or video. 2) Make sure the list of blogs youre following is complete. Ask your teacher for a copy of the class blog list if youre unsure. 3) Read at least four blog posts, preferably from students who are reading a different book than you. 4) Choose at least two blogs to add a comment to. Your comment should do the following: Make specific reference to something the blogger mentioned. Eg/ I like how you made the connection between your like and Kristinas. Add to the discussion by making a connection, politely disagreeing and providing reasons, or raising a question. Demonstrates proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation (no smilies or text-message lingo). 5) When you get a comment, reply and thank the person for commenting. Your reply should indicate that youve read and considered their comment, so rather than just saying Thanks! you might say something like Thanks for your comment. I hadnt considered that Craig might be putting a lot of pressure on himself at school. 6) If you have time left, check out the comments on your classmates blogs and see if you can find an example of what you consider to be a really good blog post and a really good comment. Make a list of criteria for a good post and comment.

ENG4C blog rubric

Student self evaluation

Name:__________________ Criteria Blogging conventions /10 Level 1 5.5-6 Some of my blog posts have an effective title, tags, and referenced images, but some are missing a number of conventions Some of my blog posts demonstrate connections between ideas studied in class and my own thoughts/experiences Level 2 6.5-7 Most of my blog posts have an effective title, tags, and referenced images, but a few of them are incomplete or missing multiple conventions Most of my blog posts demonstrate good connections between ideas studied in class and my own thoughts/experience s Most of my blog posts are at least three paragraphs long (or very close) and demonstrate appropriate spelling, grammar, and punctuation for this medium I usually commented on two blog posts a week but I might be missing a few. I may have missed a post or two Level 3 7.5-8 Almost all of my blog posts have an effective title, tags, and referenced images Level 4 8.5-10 All of my blog posts have an effective title, tags, and referenced images

Connections /10

Almost all of my blog posts demonstrate good connections between ideas studied in class and my own thoughts/experienc es Almost all of my blog posts are at least three paragraphs long and demonstrate appropriate spelling, grammar, and punctuation for this medium I commented on two other blog posts each week, with maybe one exception I blogged once a week with maybe one exception

All of my blog posts demonstrate excellent connections between ideas studied in class and my own thoughts/experience s All of my blog posts are at least three paragraphs long and demonstrate appropriate spelling, grammar, and punctuation for this medium I commented on at least two other blog posts each week.

Content/ writing conventions /10

Some of my blog posts are at least three paragraphs long (or very close) and demonstrate appropriate spelling, grammar, and punctuation for this medium I commented on one blog post a week or I have about half of the required number of comments I did about half of the number of required posts x5=

Subtotal A: Comments /10

Blog post frequency /10 Subtotal B:

I blogged at least once a week

Subtotal A:________ x Subtotal B %= Your overall mark: On the back of this sheet, please reflect on your achievement and set some goals for next time. If you were unable to meet the expectations at a level one, please explain the grade

you feel you earned and fill out the reflection on the back of this sheet. Reflection Strengths: _______________________________________________________________________ _ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ ____ Weaknesses: _______________________________________________________________________ _ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ ____ Next steps: _______________________________________________________________________ _ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ ____ Is there anything I can do to help? _______________________________________________________________________ _ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ ____